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Torrijas para Semana Santa

After doing a class survey of my ninth graders a few weeks ago, tortilla came out on top as the class’ favourite Spanish dish (I have yet to make the ‘Spanish omelette’, but it’s on my list!). The second favourite item appeared to be ‘torrijas’, which I hadn’t heard of until that day.

Semana Santa, Holy Week, is a big huge deal in Spain (or at least in Andalucía!). I’m going to be in Turkey for the week so will unfortunately be missing the big event, but I’ve seen the buildup. People prepare all year round for this. It is taken very seriously and every parish has their own processions to prepare — some of which, my students tell me, can wind through the town for up to 11 hours. It seems to be a more solemn time than the Easter I know from home; I haven’t see any Easter bunnies here, it’s all about Jesus.

Since it’s a simple and easily adaptable recipe, there are many ways you can make torrijas– my students argued whether it was better with honey or sugar, or wine or milk (most were just adamant that only their grandmother makes really good torrijas). The recipe I followed used honey as the sweetener, and since my honey already had orange in it, I decided to amp up that flavour with some orange zest. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious. Also…I totally drank the sweet spiced milk from the dish once all the bread was it. I’d highly recommend it. Feliz Semana Santa and Happy Easter!